High cost of bad roads

Mark Egan CEO of the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce, left joins Carolyn Kelly of TRIP as she gives her report on road and bridge conditions, economic development, highway safety, and transportation funding in New York Wednesday morning Feb. 26, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union) less

Mark Egan CEO of the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce, left joins Carolyn Kelly of TRIP as she gives her report on road and bridge conditions, economic development, highway safety, and transportation funding ... more

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Mark Egan CEO of the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce, left joins Carolyn Kelly of TRIP as she gives her report on road and bridge conditions, economic development, highway safety, and transportation funding in New York Wednesday morning Feb. 26, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union) less

Mark Egan CEO of the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce, left joins Carolyn Kelly of TRIP as she gives her report on road and bridge conditions, economic development, highway safety, and transportation funding ... more

Photo: Skip Dickstein

High cost of bad roads

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Albany

The average Capital Region driver spends $1,600 a year on car maintenance, lost time and gasoline due to the deteriorating conditions of local roads, a new report concludes.

The report by TRIP, a national research group based in Washington, D.C., says that traffic congestion and bumpy roads lead to added fuel and maintenance costs. The organization called for increased investment in roads and bridges, at a time when the National Highway Fund has not yet been renewed by Congress.

"Without additional investment, New York's transportation system will continue to deteriorate," said Carolyn Bonifas Kelly, an author of the report "New York Transportation by the Numbers: Meeting the state's needs for safe and efficient mobility."

TRIP is a research group sponsored by insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers, businesses involved in highway and transit engineering and construction, and labor unions.

In the Capital Region, Kelly said, more than half the roads are in poor or mediocre condition, higher than the state average of 45 percent. Some 150 miles of road were in poor condition, while another 134 miles are in mediocre condition.

Such bumpy roads has an impact on a car's depreciation, repair costs, wear on tires and fuel consumption.

Traffic congestion also plays a role in raising how much drivers spend on their commutes, the report said. Capital Region drivers spend an extra 31 hours — more than a full day — on the roads than they should because of traffic jams.

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Road damage breakdown

A new report says the state of the region's roads comes at an annual cost to drivers. Here's the breakdown:

$461 per person impact from serious crashes caused by lack of safety features.

31 hours on average lost stuck in traffic.

Source: TRIP, a national transportation research group

The report also says that road conditions play a part in a third of car accidents. With an average of 1,185 fatalities a year on New York's roadways, the state is actually below average. But that's not true for rural areas, Kelly said in the report.

"New York's traffic fatality rate on rural, non-Interstate routes is more than two-and-a-half times higher than the rate on all other roads and highways in the state," the report says. "While 21 percent of vehicle miles of travel in New York in 2011 occurred on rural, non-Interstate routes, 41 percent of New York's 2011 traffic fatalities occurred on rural, non-Interstate roads."

In December, the Times Union reported more than a third of the region's bridges were in less than good condition. Of the 950 bridges, 350 ranked below a 5, the rating considered good, a review of federal and state highway data showed.

The most troubled spans were largely owned by towns, cities and counties, which depend on federal highway funding for more than routine maintenance.

The federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to drop below $1 billion this summer, which would cause delays in the federal reimbursement to states and localities.

"Federal funding for highways is expected to be cut almost 100 percent from the current investment level for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2014 unless Congress provides additional transportation revenues," the report said.